Board game apparatus

ABSTRACT

A board game apparatus which comprises plurality of playing pieces with distinctive body colors to designate the players and end colors which are different on each piece. The end colors are selected from adjacent spectral colors when a spectrum is arranged in a circular fashion with red being adjacent to both orange and violet and the other colors being blue, green and yellow arranged in spectral order. The apparatus further comprises a board having pockets which conceal the lower end color of the piece and expose the body color and the upper end color.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Philip L. Shoptaugh 3317 Florida Street, Oakland, Calif. 94602 [21 Appl. No. 827,379 [22] Filed May 23, 1969 [451 Patented Sept. 7, 1971 [54] BOARD GAME APPARATUS 1 Claim, 11 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 273/131 AB, 273/131BA, 273/131D, 273/136 C, 273/130 R, 273/137 R [51] 1nt.Cl A631 3/02 [50] Field oiSearch 273/131, 130, 137, 133

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 947,603 1/1910 Steacy 273/136 273/131 1,204,006 1 1/1916 Goldmerstein 1,549,610 8/1925 Reisz 273/137 X 3,074,721 1/1963 DeMoon 273/133 3,462,150 8/1969 Eriksson 273/131 FOREIGN PATENTS 20,002 1914 Great Britain 273/131 Primary Examiner-Delbert B. Lower Attorney-Eclthoi'f and Hoppe ABSTRACT: A board game apparatus which comprises plurality of playing pieces with distinctive body colors to designate the players and end colors which are difierent on each piece. The end colors are selected from adjacent spectral colors when a spectrum is arranged in a circular fashion with red being adjacent to both orange and violet and the other colors being blue, green and yellow arranged in spectral order. The apparatus further comprises a board having pockets which conceal the lower end color of the piece and expose the body color and the upper end color.

PATENTEB SEW W m SHEET 1 OF 3 INVENTOR. L. SHOPTAUGH PHILIP ATTORNEYS PATENTEUSEP 7Y5?! SHEU Q 0F 3 INVENTOR. PHILIP L SHOPTAUGH SHEET 3 BF 3 ATENTEH W um" htitlill iillt GAME AIPPAIITATIUS SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a game which in its preferred form consists of a plurality of pieces which have colored ends which are concealed when the piece is in the played position or in the home position and the end color is revealed only when the piece is picked up. The object of the game is to get a plurality of pieces of a like top color in adjacent positions and one of the most interesting features of the game is that the down color is concealed both from the player who owns" the piece and from his opponent.

The game can be played on an ordinary board such as a checkerboard with a certain type of piece but preferably a board is employed having a series of pockets so that as a playing piece is put in the pocket, one can see the body color and the upper of the end colors but the down end color will be concealed. Thus a players own pieces as well as the opponents pieces have a concealed end.

The object of the game is to play the pieces in such a way that a player lines up a certain number of pieces of the same color. These can be the players own pieces or his opponents pieces. In playing the game, one ordinarily starts from a home position wherein all of the pieces are off the board and all of the pieces have one concealed end. Each player plays in turn and his play can consist of moving his piece from the home position onto the board, from one position on the board to another, or inverting one of his pieces in place, but not a combination of such moves. Since the player himself cannot see the bottom color of his pieces as well as those of his opponents, a great element of memory is provided in the game since one must remember the colors which are down of ones own pieces as well as the pieces of the opponent.

According to one preferred embodiment of the game, the pieces have colored ends although other indicia could be used such as letters or numbers. Preferably these colors of the two ends of each piece are adjacent when the colors are arranged as a circular spectrum with red being adjacent to both orange and violet and the other colors being blue, green and yellow, arranged in spectral order. Thus, a player seeing a red top exposed would know that the bottom color was either violet or orange but he would not know which. However he would know that it was neither yellow, green nor blue.

Another element of the game is that a wild piece can be introduced into the game to add further excitement.

The game lends itself to being a rather complicated game for adults or a rather simplified game for children. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a grid is provided so that a board which normally would have a large number of holes is reduced to one having a fewer number of holes. By the same token, it is possible that more complex games can be arranged. For instance, as a childrens game, one might require three colors on a line whereas a more adult game would require five or six colors in a line.

More details are provided in the description of the preferred embodiments which follow:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. ll is a perspective view of a game embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged section on the line 2-2 of FIG. I.

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the playing pieces shown in FIG. 2.

li-"I'G. is a plan view of the game board of FIG. ll.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a preferred relationship between the end colors of the playing pieces which diagram may be placed on the game board itself as a memory aid for the players.

FIG. ii is a perspective view of a piece which may be used as a wild piece.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view with certain parts cut away showing a piece which may be used for playing the game on an ordinary board such as a checker or chess board.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention showing a simplified game board.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view ofa mask which can be used on the structure shown in FIG. ii for reducing the number of squares to simplify the game.

FIG. llil is a view of an ordinary board, such as a checker board, which may be used with the pieces shown in FIG3. '7 and Ill.

FIG. III is an enlarged view of pieces which may be used for playing the game on an ordinary game board.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODih TENTS In initially describing the game of the present invention, it will be assumed that pieces are used which have two different body colors and that each player will be provided with 12 such pieces. Thus one set of 12 pieces might. have a body color of white and a second series of 12 pieces might have a body color of black. Further, it is assumed that each set of 12 pieces con sists of pieces having differently colored. ends but wherein the end colors are adjacent colors when the colors are laid out in the form of a wheel as a spectrum. It will be understood that instead of colors, letters, numbers or other indicia could be used.

Thus, referring to FIGS. I through 4, the game of the present invention includes a board generally designated lift having a first home position lid and a second home position 16. Each of the home position includes l2 pockets as at llfi for the reception of playing pieces. The playing pieces have a body color to designate the two players, such as white at as for one player and black at 22 for the other player. In addition, each players 12 pieces have two differently colored ends as, for example, the left-hand piece shown in FIG. 2 has an posed orange end 2d and a concealed red end 2h.

At the center of the board, a playing position is provided which in this case consists of a crosslike structure 28 having a series of pockets 30.

In addition, additional home positions 32 can be provided for more than two players and the game is provided with the usual cover Ml.

In order to play the game, each player would ordinarily start with 12 pieces in his home position and then move one of his pieces onto the playing board and at the time he moves his piece he shows and tells his opponent the bottom color of his piece. Thereafter, neither he nor his opponent can lift a piece to examine the color. Each player plays in turn and in order to play the game he either moves a piece from the home position onto the board or from the board onto the home position or he can move a piece, without inverting it, from one pocltet to another or he can invert one of his pieces in the same pocket. The object of the game is to line up three (or some other number) of like colors face up and the first one to do this wins the game. In lining up the colors, one can use his opponents pieces as well as his own. Thus the game is one of both memory and skill.

In FIGS. l and 5 there is shown at 35 a spectrum color wheel which shows the preferred relationship between the colors of playing pieces. Thus, for instance, if a player sees that one end of a piece is red as at as, he knows that the op posite end of the piece is either violet as at or orange as at dill. Idle knows that the opposite end is neither yellow as at green as at 44 nor blue as at as. The color wheel can be in cluded as part of the game board as is shown in FIG. ll.

In FIG. 6 there is shown a wild piece. In this particular instance the Greek lctter Tau is on the ends as at lii but the piece is otherwise identical with the pieces heretofore described. By introducing a wild" piece into the game, further interest and excitement are engendered.

In FIG '7 there is shown a form of playing piece which is adapted for use on an ordinary board such as a checker or chess board. Here there is a distinctive body color such as white shown at 59 but the end colors are inset such as the green at 52 and the blue at 56. In using a piece of this kind, it is obvious that the end color is concealed when the piece is merely sitting on a flat surface so that it is not necessary to use a pocketed board as heretofore described.

A somewhat similar piece is shown in FIGS. and 11 and here the pieces are thin but have a distinctive body color as at 56 and distinctive end colors as at 58 and 60. Again, the bottom end color is concealed when the pieces are on a flat surface such as an ordinary checkerboard 62.

In FIG. 8 a somewhat simplified form of the game is shown and one having a more compact configuration such as might be useful for a traveling game. Thus, case 64 has a center playing field 68 with pockets as previously described, and home position 70 and 72 which are also provided with pockets. In case one wishes to simplify the game, a simple grid as is shown in FIG. 9 as 74 can merely be dropped onto the playing board of FIG. 8. This reduces the number of pockets available and lends itself to either a quick game or to a childrens game where there are fewer positions in which to place the various pieces.

It is believed obvious in the foregoing that l have provided a simple, challenging game which gives much more interest than the ordinary game of checkers and which is somewhat less complex and demanding than chess and which lends itself to a fairly complex game for adults or as a relatively simple game for children.

I claim:

1. A board game apparatus comprising in combination:

a. a playing board provided with a plurality of squares,

b. a first set of playing pieces having a distinctive body indicium to designate a first player,

c. a second set of playing pieces having another distinctive body indicium to designate a second player,

d. each of said playing pieces having two distinctive end in dicia which are adjacent spectral colors when the spectrum is arranged in a circular form with red being adjacent to both orange and violet and the other colors being blue, green and yellow arranged in spectral order, each of said first and second sets of playing pieces including at least one each of all of said spectral colors and,

e. said end indicia being arranged on said pieces so that the top end indicium of each piece is exposed and the bottom end indicium of each piece is concealed when viewed from above the piece. 

1. A board game apparatus comprising in combination: a. a playing board provided with a plurality of squares, b. a first set of playing pieces having a distinctive body indicium to designate a first player, c. a second set of playing pieces having another distinctive body indicium to designate a second player, d. each of said playing pieces having two distinctive end indicia which are adjacent spectral colors when the spectrum is arranged in a circular form with red being adjacent to both orange and violet and the other colors being blue, green and yellow arranged in spectral order, each of said first and second sets of playing pieces including at least one each of all of said spectral colors and, e. said end indicia being arranged on said pieces so that the top end indicium of each piece is exposed and the bottom end indicium of each piece is concealed when viewed from above the piece. 